ELI5: Do caterpillars know they are going to be a butterfly when they make a cocoon or are they just like "wtf am I doing"?

This is something that has really interested me. Many a showertime has been spent wondering about it.

I think (believe probably isn't the right word, there's no evidence for it) that all a brain can come down to at the end of the day is a really really really intricate and complicated arrangement of switches. I don't think it would really be that hard to, say, program the "brain" of something like a housefly (or a worm) in terms of simple logic operations that initiate appropriate responses to external stimuli. But it's also almost universally believed that all life has evolved and branched off from very simple organisms, possibly even from a common ancestor. That means that at the fundamental level, we're the same thing; I appear to be made of the same biological binary/quaternary bits as the worm, a tree, an amoeba etc. All that is different is that my 1s and 0s are arranged differently, but at a fundamental level we are the same thing and have very similar biological processes.

In essence then, my brain should be the same as that of the housefly, only mine is running with more processing power and with a more advanced algorithm to read, interpret and respond to stimuli. This makes me wonder two things: * Where would we draw the line between a program and a person? If the original hypothesis is true, can a microprocessor have sentience if programmed correctly? Is my dog conscious or just an automated bag of organic matter that likes to steal my shoes? What is the critical complexity required for something to stop being an object and start being a mind? * Am I really an intelligent being with thoughts feelings and desires of my own, or am I just a biological computer. Do I really have control over the way I interact with the world, or am I just predisposed -programmed if you will- to think and feel in a certain way? Am I a unique snowflake, or a series of instructions that could be replicated with NAND gates?

Around about this time I realise that I'll be late for the bus, so I rinse my hair, scrub my genitals and postpone my existential crisis until the next shower.

/r/explainlikeimfive Thread Parent